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Tourist railroads, train shows, and Covid-19

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  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 2,572 posts
Posted by John-NYBW on Sunday, March 28, 2021 6:51 PM

ricktrains4824

Not to be the downer, but other countries have a much higher percentage vaccinated than here, and are again under lockdown. They keep having new outbreaks. Vaccines or not.

As much as I dislike it, I am afraid we may have a "new normal" and until everyone gets onboard with masks, social distancing, etc...., this isn't going to go away. 

And until the vaccines have better information from the current'tests', I will be cautious about getting in line for one. 

The safest answer, is masks, social distancing, limiting the number of people in any given location, not doing unnecessary travel, and avoiding crowds. Even with vaccines, CDC and WHO are both still recommending masks and limiting crowds.

 

I've had these discussions in other online groups. Many are of the opinion that masks keep you from spreading the disease but not getting it. The people who make all these recommendations keep changing their mind so how is anybody to know for sure. I wear a mask because I figure it can't hurt and might help. Even after being vaccinated, I'll continue to wear one until this thing has subsided to the point it's no longer a signficant risk. Who knows when that will be. 

They say the vaccine is 95% effective. I don't know how they could know that. I think they just picked a number in case somebody who gets vaccinated gets the disease. They'll say that person was in the 5%. The real test of the vaccine will be when we start getting numbers on how many people who got vaccinated got the disease anyway. Hopefully that will be extremely low but who knows. I know I feel a lot safer knowing I have been vaccinated than when I had not. 

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 2,572 posts
Posted by John-NYBW on Sunday, March 28, 2021 6:35 PM

MisterBeasley

Where are you located?  I live in Delaware and bars and restaurants have occupancy limits but most are open.  I've been enjoying both since the middle of last year, when they started opening up again.

I have not had any shots, mostly because these things have been rushed through through and bypassed most normal vaccine testing.  I have lost any faith I ever had in Big Pharma and govermment.

 

Our bars and restaurants have been open for quite a while too. I just haven't been willing to risk going to one. Even with social distancing, it has been too much of a risk. I check all the high risk boxes. Male. Over 60. Overweight. Diabetic. I'm going to give the vaccine a couple more weeks to take full effect and then I'll be willing to start venturing out into public more than what I have been doing. 

  • Member since
    November 2006
  • From: NW Pa Snow-belt.
  • 2,216 posts
Posted by ricktrains4824 on Sunday, March 28, 2021 2:08 PM

Not to be the downer, but other countries have a much higher percentage vaccinated than here, and are again under lockdown. They keep having new outbreaks. Vaccines or not.

As much as I dislike it, I am afraid we may have a "new normal" and until everyone gets onboard with masks, social distancing, etc...., this isn't going to go away. 

And until the vaccines have better information from the current'tests', I will be cautious about getting in line for one. 

The safest answer, is masks, social distancing, limiting the number of people in any given location, not doing unnecessary travel, and avoiding crowds. Even with vaccines, CDC and WHO are both still recommending masks and limiting crowds.

Ricky W.

HO scale Proto-freelancer.

My Railroad rules:

1: It's my railroad, my rules.

2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.

3: Any objections, consult above rules.

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,483 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Sunday, March 28, 2021 1:15 PM

Where are you located?  I live in Delaware and bars and restaurants have occupancy limits but most are open.  I've been enjoying both since the middle of last year, when they started opening up again.

I have not had any shots, mostly because these things have been rushed through through and bypassed most normal vaccine testing.  I have lost any faith I ever had in Big Pharma and govermment.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 2,572 posts
Tourist railroads, train shows, and Covid-19
Posted by John-NYBW on Sunday, March 28, 2021 11:02 AM

I finally got my second vaccination Friday so in ten days, I'll be ready to start resuming a normal life and I am looking forward to it. Since it became apparent how serious the pandemic was, I have left the house only for necessary errands and to play golf. The latter makes it easy to social distance. The necesssary errands have mostly been trips to the grocery store. A couple trips to the doctor and the vet. Once in a while I've made a side trip to another retail establishment such as the LHS. I've done a lot of e-tail shopping the last year through Amazon, Walmart, and ebay. I've discovered how easy it is and how quickly I can usually get what I want. I will probably continue to do a lot of shopping online. I look forward to being able to go to a bar or sit down restaurant again. 

Hopefully the rest of the country will slowly get back to normal too. Maybe this summer we will see in person train shows and the tourist railroads resuming their activities. I wonder if the pandemic has put any of the tourist railroads out of business. I looked on the UP steam schedule and they haven't announced anything for 2021. Looks like it might be 2022 before that starts up again. Would like to see Big Boy again.

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